Hi
I'm totally new on here. Hello everybody! Well, my dad, who is 81, has been getting subtely and gradually more forgetful and confused for a few years now. My parents lived in the Midlands, but moved around the corner from us in Sheffield about a year ago (so that we could be close if need be). A couple of weeks ago, things changed dramatically. All of a sudden, he went from being this forgetful and confused amiable man to somebody who is basically totally psychotic - he thinks bandits are going to kidnap my mum etc - he comes out with all manner of strange things that would make my schizophrenic brother embarrassed. When he is in this state he is almost catatonic - he will stand for hours without sitting down, and will barely communicate at all.
The stange thing is - and this is where I am hoping that you good people can advise us - is that one day he is totally psychotic and just basically completely out of it - totally disengaged from the world around him and trying to 'escape' etc and the next, he is almost back to 'normal' - able to joke with the grandkids etc and able to help my mum in the garden and interact wth the family etc. The strange thing is that this seems to happen on alternate days: good day/bad day; good day/bad day.
We suspect that he may have had a small stroke and my wife has read about a form of dementia that comes on 'hard' out of the blue after such an episode. I'm positive that this good day/bad day thing 'out of the blue' must say a lot about his condition and that
some of you will be familiar with the implications of this pattern. He is booked in for a brain scan etc. but things don't move quickly, do they?
Any advice, accounts of similar experiences would be very much appreciated.
Martin : )
I'm totally new on here. Hello everybody! Well, my dad, who is 81, has been getting subtely and gradually more forgetful and confused for a few years now. My parents lived in the Midlands, but moved around the corner from us in Sheffield about a year ago (so that we could be close if need be). A couple of weeks ago, things changed dramatically. All of a sudden, he went from being this forgetful and confused amiable man to somebody who is basically totally psychotic - he thinks bandits are going to kidnap my mum etc - he comes out with all manner of strange things that would make my schizophrenic brother embarrassed. When he is in this state he is almost catatonic - he will stand for hours without sitting down, and will barely communicate at all.
The stange thing is - and this is where I am hoping that you good people can advise us - is that one day he is totally psychotic and just basically completely out of it - totally disengaged from the world around him and trying to 'escape' etc and the next, he is almost back to 'normal' - able to joke with the grandkids etc and able to help my mum in the garden and interact wth the family etc. The strange thing is that this seems to happen on alternate days: good day/bad day; good day/bad day.
We suspect that he may have had a small stroke and my wife has read about a form of dementia that comes on 'hard' out of the blue after such an episode. I'm positive that this good day/bad day thing 'out of the blue' must say a lot about his condition and that
some of you will be familiar with the implications of this pattern. He is booked in for a brain scan etc. but things don't move quickly, do they?
Any advice, accounts of similar experiences would be very much appreciated.
Martin : )